Who's the most famous / coolest person from your town?

[Screaming Lord Byron]

Who's the most famous / coolest person who grew up and / or was born in your town? Mine is Tommy Chong (Calgary, Alberta)

[RetroLounge]

1. Arthur Fonzarelli

Milwaukee :)

[Screaming Lord Byron]

3. Yeah, I liked him until that whole shark-jumping thing.

[Maddy McCall]

10. He lost me when he dated Pinky Tuscadero...

I was insanely jealous! The Fonz was MY man! LOL!

[radwriter0555]

2. Me.

I'm the one who left and went to Hollywierd.

[La_Serpiente]

4. Oooo

Jason Momoa on Baywatch



and there is Don Ho who sings Tiny Bubbles.

[VelmaD]

5. Audie Murphy...

ok, so technically he's from just outside of my hometown.

Other cool person from Greenville...Ben Kweller. His dad used to be my mom's boss and my little brother was a roadie for his old band, Radish, for a while.

[Maddy McCall]

6. Bo Diddly, Snoop Dogg, and Afroman

Bo was born here.
Snoop was made here--his mom and pop are from here and, uh, made him here.
And Afroman is from the town where I work.

[RedEarth]

42. Bo Diddley....he's the man...I've got several of his albums...

one of which is "Have Guitar will Travel" with Bo sitting on a motorcycle holding a square guitar...great picture.

[OneBlueSky]

7. composer John Cage and choreographer Merce Cunningham . . .

used to live right up the road from me . . . Cage died a few years back, and I don't know if Cunningham still lives there or not . . .

[Brucey]

19. Very cool!

I have autographed books by both Cage and Cunningham.

[Rowdyboy]

8. Leontine Price grew up a few blocks from my mother...

and Tom Lester (Eb on Green Acres) are both from my hometown.

The most noted person from my current residence is Sambo Mockbee, a nationally known architect and professor or architecture at Auburn. He died in 2001.

[soleft]

9. Bruce Springsteen

[Screaming Lord Byron]

23. Guess I don't need to ask which town then, eh.

[CO Liberal]

11. Gene Shalit (Morristown, NJ)

As far as I know, his family's drug store (Shalit's Drugs, at the intersection of Speedwell and Sussex Avenues) is still in business.

[SaveElmer]

12. Probably Al Franken

St. Louis Park, MN !!!

[mark0rama]

112. SaveElmer, you also get to claim the Coen brothers!

Me? The best I can do is the late "Password" host Allen Ludden.

Is there a prize for "least cool"?

[Wickerman]

13. Frederick Louis (F.L.) Maytag 1857--1937

http://www.maytagclub.com/page-12.htm


Founder F.L. Maytag and his grandson Fred Maytag II in a Maytag automobile. Between 1907 and 1912, Maytag tried his hand at making cars, vacuum sweepers, and fountain pens as well as washers. Only the Washers went on to glory.

[rogerashton]

14. Will you take the person who discovered my town?

Captain Henry Miller Shreve, naval architect and explorer, who found and partly cleared the riverboat route up the Red River of the south to the riverside bluff that came to be named after him -- Shreveport.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

24. Most Acceptable.

[Gigi]

15. St. Louis

Chuck Berry/Kevin Kline/Vincent Price.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

16. Vincent Price gets my vote..totally.

[Red State Rebel]

65. St. Louis - John Goodman, too

[Brucey]

17. I was born and live in Minneapolis.

We have: Bob Dylan, Prince, Garrison Keillor, F. Scott Fitzgerald, J. P. Getty, Jessica Lange and Sam Shephard, John Sanford (the "Prey" books), Eugene McCarthy, Hubert Humphrey, Walter Mondale, Husker Du, the Replacements, and many others. I'd say the coolest is Bob Dylan.

[myrna minx]

100. Hey...what he said. n/t

[MissMillie]

18. Clara Barton

founder of the Red Cross.

[AWD]

20. Marilyn Manson

....I went to high school with him too.

[Maddy McCall]

26. A good guy friend of mine is his head lighting/sound tech right now...

has been working with him for about 7 years, rolling in the dough.

[MsFlorida]

27. Canton, Ohio??

is it snowing there again yet?

[AWD]

91. It's currently 60 degrees here.....

[XNASA]

21. John A. Miller, Roller-coaster Pioneer

Miller was a genius from Homewood, Illinois. He was an inventor. He was a prolific designer and builder of roller coasters and other amusement devices and buildings. Miller was the "Thomas Edison" of roller coasters and is the father of today's coasters.

PS - I suppose that I might have listed Chicago as my hometown, but the list would be kind of long, and what's the fun in that.

[grannylib]

22. Most famous, maybe Ellen Dolan? On some soap or other...

I think she is on the Guiding Light? Coolest would be artist Carl Homestead (sp?) he does murals on buildings in rural areas, very cool

[madrchsod]

25. ronald reagen

need i say anything more???

[rasputin1952]

54. Kudo's for the bravery...

but I'd keep that kind of quiet.

:eyes:

[SiobhanClancy]

28. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Stephen King

both born in Portland,Maine(as was I).Both are pretty famous,and King is fairly cool..can't comment on the coolness of Longfellow,though:)

[Screaming Lord Byron]

29. Can you help me with my Longfellow?

Couldn't resist, I'm afraid.

[SiobhanClancy]

101. Sure...

when there is pork in the treetops from all the winged pigs flying around:)

[Screaming Lord Byron]

108. Hey! Rodney Dangerfield quotes get no respect and no regard!

[RetroLounge]

30. Les Paul

is from Waukesha, just west of Milwaukee...

[dodger501]

31. Richard Dean Anderson

of MacGuyver and Stargate SG-1.
Roseville, MN . . . it's a 1st-ring suburb tucked between the Twin Cities.

32. Damon Runyon

& the town tried to tear down the house he was born in, but the historical society stopped them.

[crozdogg]

33. David Letterman

is from Indy. His mom still lives here. Kurt Vonnegut is from here too.

c-dogg

[newyawker99]

78. Hi crozdogg!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[geniph]

34. Right now, probably Gary Ridgway

the Green River murderer. Sigh. We seem to breed a lot of psychopaths around here.

[SEAburb]

39. must be the rain???? //nt

,,,,,,

[Xithras]

35. George Lucas

Lately we've been better known for Chandra Levy and Laci Peterson.

[bambo53]

36. Scott Hamilton the figure skater

Bowling Green Ohio. I graduated with his sister and used to party with him whenever he came back to town. I haven't seen him in about 15 years though.

[put out]

37. Very cool person from Lee's Summit, Missouri

Mike and Pat Metheny. This would be two people, but their coolness is exponential.

I had to edit for my spelling. I am not cool.

[newyawker99]

79. Hi put out!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[ScreamingMeemie]

38. I guess now...most would say Eminem..But there have been

a lot of famous people from motown.

Maybe right now it would be a toss up between Eminem and Kid Rock.

[SOteric]

40. Jimi Hendrix

[Catshrink]

66. Yep, Jimi Hendrix

I grew up in Seattle.

[Leftist78]

41. hmm...that'd have to be...

Pink Anderson

[RedEarth]

43. Shannon Miller...gold medal winner

and numerous golfers....Dr. Gil Morgan, Bob Tway, and several others.

[populistmom]

44. Ethan Hawke...

lived briefly in the town I live in now when he was a child. That's the ONLY cool person I know of (besides myself of course).

[argyl]

45. Lived in Schertz,Texas the same time Steve Earle did.I didn't know him

but my younger sister did.They both went to O.G.Weiderstein Junior High.School was so small that all kids went to all classes together.

[GOPisEvil]

49. I grew up in Universal City...my school used to play Weiderstein in sports

:hi:

My folks still live in UC.

[argyl]

53. I also lived in Converse. Back then it made Schertz look like Dallas.

xx

[GOPisEvil]

55. I went to High School in Converse.

One guess as to which one. :silly:

[argyl]

58. Judson,natch.I went to Jr. High in Converse.At the time the football team

,the Judson Rockets,was IA,just a step above six man football.They did well if they won one game a year.The Schertz Cibolo Buffaloes usually pounded them.Since then they've won a couple of state 5A championships,and I believe the Schertz team still sucks.

[GOPisEvil]

76. Nah...Clemens is up to 5A itself, and is not too shabby.

My parents are still Judson season ticket holders. I was a sophomore the year Judson won their first championship (1983).

[chrisesq]

46. Martin Sheen, either that or Rob Lowe

[Philostopher]

90. Don't stop there --

We've also got Phil Donahue, Erma Bombeck, Paul Laurence Dunbar, and though they weren't born here, they're famous for having their bicycle shop here -- Orville and Wilbur Wright.

Oh, yeah -- and Bob Pollard, of Guided By Voices.

[Whitacre D_WI]

96. Y'all may have them going for you...

but I'm from just up the road, hometown of Lillian Gish and Jonathan Winters (who used to go drinking with my grandpa).

Now I live in the hometown of Les Paul.

[HEyHEY]

47. HMMM........

Micheal J Fox, Jason Priestly, Bryan Adams I know HE'S not cool but.... oh oh ...Loverboy!

[rasputin1952]

48. Childhood home of Johnny Carson...

In fact, the house is up for sale. The guys that own it, (from SD), are trying to unload it now for $131,000. It had been on the block for some $370,000, no buyers so now they'll take a loss. They are trying to sell it to the city now. Carson lived in the house from the age of 8 to till he was 18.

When I lived in Kingman AZ, I found out that Andy Devine had lived there, and his parents owned the hotel. The Mojave Historical Museum has Devine's saddle and other artifacts from his film career.

I am originally from NYC, but I'll let others tackle that one.

:kick:

edit: cleaned up spelling

[ironflange]

50. I didn't know Tommy was from Calgary

How about Bret Hart? I went through high school with him, but we travelled in different circles.

What part of the city do you live in? I'm in Bridlewood, one of the "sprawl" communities, but it sure is nice here. Especially now that the Sobey's is open.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

80. We can also (kinda) claim Joni Mitchell. I'm in West Citadel

Right by the prison, other end of town from you, right? I would've put the Harts' but for me, Tommy's the coolest.

[annagull]

51. Latest: Andre 3000 and Big Boi of Outkast!

Hey Ya's!!!

[THUNDER HANDS]

52. Vinny Testaverde

Jets quarterback.

[Demonaut]

56. Oliver Cromwell

infamous in Ireland.

[DemoTex]

57. Well, since I am in the "wilds", the NC mountains ...

The most famous people I know up here, through their NC family, are James and Livingston Taylor.

[5thGenDemocrat]

59. Stevie Wonder

Saginaw, Michigan (of course).
John
Question Mark and the Mysterians rate, too. So does Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Theodore Roethke.

[DoNotRefill]

60. Seka...

"hometown girl made good!"

BWAHAHAHAAAAA!!! :evilgrin:

[rustydog]

61. Kyle McLaughlin

:bounce:

MUST add: Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas

[qwertyMike]

62. Van Morrison

Belfast

Liam Neeson
Kenneth Branaugh

[Screaming Lord Byron]

81. Quite the trifecta, there.

[Red State Rebel]

63. Rusty, Mike & Kenny Wallace of NASCAR fame....

Fenton, MO - went to high school with Mike & Rusty.

[nickgutierrez]

64. Edgerrin James/ Albert Bentley

Immokalee, FL.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

67. Gwen Stefani

Also a neighbor (formerly anyway) Her family members still live across the street.

[PVnRT]

68. Eugene Debs, Theodore Dresier, Tommy John

Terre Haute, IN

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

70. And of course up the road, you had Vonnegut and Hoagy Carmicheal!

[PVnRT]

72. Further up the road

David Letterman

Don't forget that Jimmy Hoffa was born in Brazil, IN, 15 minutes east of Terre Haute. And David Lee Roth and Axl Rose are both from Bloomington. w00t!

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

75. And then of course there's you and a whole host of cool DU'ers

;-)

[Kathy in Cambridge]

69. Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, countless authors, professors who

I'm too tired to remember right now...

[Sting]

71. Famous person???

My town has like 3000 people....does the village idiot count?
Sting

[Ramsey]

73. Joan Osborne

Actually, she is the only famous person from Anchorage, Kentucky that I am aware of.

[DEM FAN]

74. Not From MY TOWN But Singer Gregg Allman Lives In Daytona Beach

FL And I Live In Port Orange. :-)

[CanuckAmok]

77. Linda Evangelista.

I don't know if that counts as "cool". But famous, yes.

Infamous: Paul Bernardo (the Scarborough Rapist/3x murderer) and his accomplice wife, Karla Homolka.

[Loonman]

82. Anne Sexton, Samuel Adams

n/t

[BigMcLargehuge]

83. Robert Frost and Allan Shephard

Though Frost wasn't born here, he lived here and taught for many years. He found the inspiration for his poems, Mending Wall, West Running Brook, The Road Less Taken, The Witch of Coos, and many, many others here.

Allan Shephard was the first American in space.

Hell, our town nickname is "Spacetown".

And of course, I live here...

Derry, New Hampshire, home of poets and astronauts.

[Abaques]

84. Prince.

I grew up in Chanhassen, MN.

Prince had a purple house my school bus drove by every day one year. And one of his bodyguards lived two houses down from mine.

[bmbmd]

85. Buddy Holly

Rave on!

[skippysmom]

86. The town I live in...

...is the location of the Kennedy compound. Still haven't seen Teddy around, though.

The town I grew up in spawned Ken Ober of Remote Control fame. And Marcus Camby went to high school there for a while, and Ray Allen has a house there. Can't think of any other good ones off the top of my head.

[rjbcar27]

87. Beat this - CHARLES DARWIN

:-)

[masmdu]

88. O'Henry and Edward R. Murrow

Greensboro NC

[VermontDem2004]

89. Rodney Peete NFL QB

He is from Mesa, Arizona.

[Hawkeye-X]

92. Detroit Piston's Chauncey Billups

Went to high school with him (He was a year behind me)

[LisaM]

115. He's our favorite Piston!

If you ever talk to him, be sure to tell him that.

[av8rdave]

93. Only a few from mine....

Lucille Ball

Natalie Merchant (tops MY list)

Me

av8rdave

[eileen_d]

94. Wally Kurth! (Who?)

Wallace Kurth joined the cast of "General Hospital" as the charming yet ruthless businessman Ned Ashton in 1992.
http://generalhospital.about.com/library/bios/blbiowallykurth.htm

He's the most "famous" person I hear of, if you use the media as a standard. If you use history, there's plenty of other characters associated with my hometown - Calamity Jane probably the best known.

[LynneSin]

95. Outside of myself (since I'm really pretty damn cool)

Newt Gingrich :puke: was born in the same city I was born in (Harrisburg, PA)

[Esurientes]

97. Mojo Nixon

George Grizzard and Richard Jewell grew up here too. But you did say "coolest".

[HuckleB]

98. Matt Groening or Beverly Cleary or Chuck Palahniuk

others...

Linus Pauling
Ursula LeGuin
Gary Snyder
Sally Struthers
Ahmad Rashad
David James Duncan
The Kingsmen
Dick Fosbury
Doc Severinsen
Gus Van Sandt
Danny Ainge
Phil Knight
Pink Martini
The Dandy Warhols

[mdmc]

99. Gereldine Ferrarro

:dem: newburgh, ny

[dbt]

102. Chelsea Clinton!

Born in Little Rock, February 27, 1980!

:bounce:
dbt

[noonwitch]

103. There are lots of famous people from Detroit.

I'm not sure who is the most famous. Diana Ross, Bob Seger, Glenn Frey, all the motown people, the late Aliyah, Eminem (although he's from Warren, the suburb I live in), etc.

The city I grew up in (Grand Rapids) only had a few, Gerald Ford being probably the most famous. Other famous Grand Rapidians include the late Roger B. Chaffee (astronaut), the DeVoses and VanAndels (the crooks who founded AMWAY), and Gillian Anderson.

[Kat45]

104. I don't think there's anyone like that from my town!

And I've always found it to be a boring town.

[Kolesar]

105. Paul Newman would be coolest

His family runs a boffo outdoor products store here, too.
John D. Rockefeller would be most famous, or infamous, because he was the ultimate corporate exploiter.

[monkeyboy]

106. Brion James (Blade Runner)

He's from Beaumont, Ca., and was a character actor who played in lots and lots of movies. He was the android in Blade Runner who slapped the gun out of Harrison Ford's hand and sent it flying down the street. I just went to a web site and found out that he died of a heart attack in 1999. I didn't know that.

[1gobluedem]

107. Iggy Pop...

...Bob Seger, Ken Burns. Ann Arbor, MI.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

109. Possible winner, there.

[kayell]

110. Shoeless Joe Jackson wasn't born here

but he aquired his nickname in Anderson, SC. Does that count?

http://www.blackbetsy.com/jjfaq.htm
Back in 1908 Joe was playing for a team in his hometown of Greenville, South Carolina and he had bought a new pair of spikes. He had worn the spikes one day and the next day his team was playing the Anderson, South Carolina team. The new pair of spikes had rubbed blisters on Joe's feet, so he wanted to sit this game out, however his team was short some players and Joe had to play. Joe tried to play in the new spikes but they hurt his feet real bad. During one inning Joe took the spikes off and played in just his socks, he came up to bat and hit a triple and as he was pulling up at third an Anderson fan hollered "You shoeless son of a gun you!" It was the only day Joe played in his stockinged feet, but the name stuck forever. Joe did not like this handle he carried all his life, but that is how the world knew him......"Shoeless" Joe Jackson.

And we are also the home of "Radio". Ironically, his home burned down here recently, soon after the movie was released.
http://www.independentmail.com/and/radio/article/0,1886,AND_15176_2399557,00.html

[Ediacara]

111. Ted Turner and Jane Fonda

Well they don't live here anymore AFAIK, but during the 90s, they lived just outside of Bozeman.

[Bake]

113. Carl Perkins

Jackson, Tennessee. Now that cat was COOL!! King of the rockabilly guitarists.

Bake

[LisaM]

114. Steve Miller, Andy Williams, and Michael Jackson

Granted, they aren't the ones you might know. But real people with those names all attended my high school simultaneously.

Also, Debbie Stabenow's brother and Pete Gent's niece and nephews. And Stevie Wonder's bus driver's son. The well-known wrestler "The Bear" from Michigan. Ransom E. Olds had a cottage on the lake near where I grew up. The carousel from our home town moved to Cedar Pointe (Sandusky, Ohio!) and can now be ridden in Frontier Land. Finally, Amo Bessone. We're kind of the land that time forgot.

[LuLu550]

116. Jerry Seinfeld, the Baldwin Brothers, Jessica Hahn, and Joey Buttafuco

that's Massapequa. LI for you!

[Spirochete]

117. A few baseball players

come from here. Randy Myers, Richie Sexson, Alan Embree, one of the Brian Hunters. That's all I can think of. Willie Nelson did live here for a couple years, and was a local disk jockey.

[Interrobang]

118. Guy Lombardo (most famous, NOT coolest)

Runner-up in the Most Famous, and Winner in the Coolest category would be Sir Frederick Grant Banting, inventor of insulin. We can also claim Sir Adam Beck, inventor of standard time zones. The pop metal group Kittie is also from London, as is the Canadian author James Reaney.

[latebloomer]

119. I went to high school with Phoebe Snow.

She was Phoebe Laub then.

The Isley Brothers also used to live in Teaneck, New Jersey. Also Pat Boone.

[catzies]

120. ALF CLAUSEN, (music director for The Simpsons)

Didn't know it until I read it in my local paper last week!

http://www1.venturacountystar.com/vcs/television/article/0,1375,VCS_234_2422754,00.html

[Socialist Christian]

121. Stephen Spielberg, Ken Griffey jr, Jerry Springer, Me

[guitar man]

122. Take your pick

Tulsa,OK
Leon Russel
Roy Clark
Gary Busey
Paul Harvey
James Garner
JJ cale
The Gap Band
David Gates
Dwight Twilley
Elvin Bishop
Bob Wills
Hanson


and a lot more I can't think of right now